We had a record number of entries this time and it was so hard to choose a winner.  In the end, we picked Evelyn Pelati’s website.  Her metalwork is absolutely gorgeous and with a few tweaks we’re hoping to help her make her shop match that.  You can follow along at her website: Evelyn Pelati Jewelry.

Things We Loved:

• Your gorgeous landing page image.  Your visitors really get a good sense of your product right off the bat.
• It’s really nice to see that you update your shows and galleries.  So many people don’t do this.
• Great divisions of your work in the shop.  It’s easy to navigate as well.
• A nicely written about page that shares your passion.

Things We Would Tweak:

• Put your contact form into your about page.  Right now, it’s really hard to find your contact information since it’s at the bottom of the page and it jumps according to what is on the page.  Your ‘about’ page is the 2nd most visited page on your so this is the perfect place to put it.  Make sure you change the ‘about’ to ‘about & contact’ though in the menu bar.
• It would be really nice to integrate your blog into your site so that people don’t need to go offsite for that.  Plus, the blog page looks so empty as it is right now.
• Can your store policies and FAQ become one?  They seem to have lots of overlap and as a visitor, I’m not sure which one to go to in order to find the information I want.
• We’re huge fans of your written testimonials but your work is so beautiful, why not ask people to send in photos as well!  Nowadays, imagery gets a better response than words so embrace that.  You can also use the images on your Pinterest board.
• We could change ‘news’ in your menu bar to ‘press’ since that’s essentially what it is.  ‘News’ usually means a list of your upcoming shows and appearances.  People in the media will also automatically be looking for ‘press’ to look for your press kit and where you’ve been featured.
• Your photographs of the product alone are beautiful but we really want to see your work in someone’s hand and on a model.  Your customer needs to be able to put themselves into the photo and see themselves wearing the piece.  They can’t do that with the weird drawing cutout that you’re using.  Plus, if you want to have your customers see the value of your work and pay the price you’re asking, you need to show them it in a way that jives with that price.  Paper cut-outs of women’s faces sell jewelry at Claire’s but not at a higher-end jewelry store.

We hope this critique helped Evelyn as well as you.  Tell us what light bulbs went on for you and what you might be tweaking in your own shop!  And, as always, thank you for entering the contest.  There will be another one next month.